Friday, November 02, 2007

ex-Saudi Ambassador claims Saudis knew of the 9/11 plot beforehand and US could have avoided 9/11 by consulting with Saudi Arabia

From Little Green Footballs, referring to a report from CNN.
Saudi Arabia could have helped the United States prevent al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington if American officials had consulted Saudi authorities in a "credible" way, the kingdom's former ambassador said in a documentary aired Thursday.

Prince Bandar said that Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the 9/11 plotters "with precision."

. . .

Speaking to the Arabic satellite network Al-Arabiya on Thursday, Bandar -- now Abdullah's national security adviser -- said Saudi intelligence was "actively following" most of the September 11, 2001, plotters "with precision."

"If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened," he said.
So our dear "allies" the Saudis were actively following the plotters with precision.

maybe the translation was wrong and instead of following he meant funding?

Any credible reason for the Saudis not to pass on to US intelligence the identities of these precise plotters and details of the plot?

This doesn't say much for the Saudi side of the vaunted US-Saudi relationship when after knowing the plotters and tracking them with precision the Saudis sit idly by and watch a few thousand infidels get killed.

If his statements are true and why would he lie about this, it is well past time the US reexamines its relationship with the Saudis, and their poisonous wahhabbism.

Interestingly Bandar isn't giving the standard Arab line of the "Jews knew about it beforehand", its instead "We the Saudis knew about it beforehand, and if only you asked it wouldn't have happened". Since this is coming from the royal family and former official mouthpiece of the Saudis it should raise at least some question as to the Saudi government passively permitting or perhaps even actively assisting in the carrying out of the 9/11 attacks.

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